Our Annual Picnic

President's Message

Hello to our website visitors. The San Diego Prowlers are now well into our 71st year. It is August and it's hot even in San Diego. This was our first Summer
since the early '70s that we haven't staged our annual

"Picnic and Ol' Timers Reunion". It really feels good to relax a little and have time to drive our hot rods and maybe even work on them a little.

As promised we are reinventing ourselves back into "doing whatever we want" for a change and leave the event planning to promoters who enjoy that stuff!

We are still the unchallenged "oldest hot rod club" continuously corrupting young men since 1947 so please dig in to our webpages and visit the hot rod club that
has been there the whole time. See the men, cars and their hobby from post WWII to the present that was the laboratory of power and style that helped shape today’s automobile.

News

The San Diego Prowlers making Hot Rod history - The 1970's

It was the 1970's, there was love in the air...there was Vietnam on TV every evening. We needed the cars to keep our sanity. We had a blast whenever we got together. It was a
time when having good friends and a car to cruise in was very valuable.We could always count on our annual picnic to keep our spirits up. This one in 1974 was typical of them all. We had
good friends, good food and created a bucket load of memories. ﻿

Here Frank Marsh is sporting one of our 'Satin' jackets, which was the rage in the 1950's. This jacket was also the original style jacket from 1947 -'52. Yes our
picnics were family affairs. We always brought the wife and kids. They all enjoyed them and looked forward to the next one. Santee Lakes in east San Diego county is a popular
place for our picnics. In June of 2006 we loaned the "Wally Parks-NHRA Museum" in Pomona, Calif. Franks original #31 Prowler club jacket as pictured. It is to be displayed in the club's
glass display case at the museum. Also included with Franks items will be his photo with his 1932 Ford Victoria, his membership card and the Russetta timing tag.﻿

Fred Castro's '23 T-bucket was typical of the day. Extreme style was the rule then. The TV show 77 Sunset Strip had just made the T-bucket roadster the essential hot rod.
Fred's looked great and ran well. He drove it everywhere. Dan Biggs drives it today.﻿

Great article out of Street Rodder Magazine in '73 on the club's beloved sergeant at arms Freddy Castro and his "T" roadster.

﻿

In fact heres a great shot of Freddy head'n for the 2003 Fathers Day Roadster show at Pomona.

Pete Morrow always liked roadsters. Here we see him with a cover-car for sure, his
1929 Ford roadster. Pete drove the car a lot which makes its super-clean appearance even more impressive. As you can see it was usually a top award winner. What else would you
expect - he's a Prowler!

Heres T.C.'s, Terry Cole's (#111) Flamed '36 Ford coupe. Wonder where she is today? Hopefully in the right hands.﻿

Marty Simonides member #118, 1927 "T" roadster pickup. Built in 1971, he still owns and drives her today. This picture was taken at the LA Roadsters Fathers Day Show
2005. We're happy to report Marty recently retired is back as an active member. Welcome back, Marty!﻿

This is Bruce Hamiltons Model "A" with a BBChevy for power. This was one of the clubs faster ones. Bruce and his ex wife Patty drove this one all the way back to New
York.﻿

Great rac'n stripes. Bruce was also one of the clubs past presidents.﻿

Heres another one of Bruces rides that he had in '74 Chevy engine a '40 Ford pickup.﻿

These pictures were taken at the clubs picnic in '76. Bob won the Best Closed Car award.

This was a great article in the '73 May issue of Street Rodder on the Phil Gerharts collection of manifolds,heads and air cleaners for flatheads.﻿

This was an article of how street rodders take care of each other. An accident totaled Lee Brights sedan delivery known as "Mother Trucker" and seriously injured John
Mogart's leg. Lee was lucky to come out with minor injuries. The club held a charity picnic and raffled off all sorts of equipment and supplies to help John with medical bills
and possibly bail the delivery out of the "emergency ward". All the items that were raffled off were donated from half a dozen clubs throughout Southern Calif. ﻿

'31 Ford Roadster built by (TC) Terry Coe #111 and sold to Harry Craycroft. This article is from the January issue of Street Rodder 1977.﻿

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his is another one of Danny Brents creations that was in the 1976 May issue of Custom and Rod
Ideas.

This is a shot of the '28 Ford Roadster Ken Polesky member #119 joined the Prowlers with in April of 1971. There is another great shot of his car in the '60's history
section.﻿